The scrapbook paper I used for this is beautiful, but while it’s a fabulous background texture, it lacks a focal point. For that, I used this Mexican Loteria card that I bought at an import store in San Diego. Because scorpions make me think of Scorpio, I used the star stamp and some embossing powder to make the card match more with the background. The background papers, while providing a clear field for text, also add some stability.

I had hoped, on the black and white text above, that I would be able to drop small pools of epoxy resin and make epoxy stickers. I discovered that I used the wrong kind. I think I have to use the quick setting epoxy, not the kind of resin that I pour into my magnets. It spreads out too thin. It does, however, make the paper transparent, which is kind of cool.

For the front of this I collaged several pieces of paper together, which looks good, but isn’t as practical because so many of the glues tend to allow the paper to curl up at the edges.  Some of the cancellation marks were existent already on the stamps, some were ones I added from my stamp collection, and some of them were on the paper. I just mailed this one last week.

This was one of the first postcards I made for this series, before I actually researched the USPS guidelines, so I have to use a 44 cent stamp to mail it. I couldn’t cut it smaller, because I’d alrady made the little frame on the inside (you can see the writing behind it). I am not terribly thrilled with how it turned out. I have nice papers, and a nice stamp of a chandelier, which I made gold with embossing powder, but all the pieces didn’t come together. It’s like cooking with world class ingredients and still making something that doesn’t taste good. There’s not a lot of craftsmanship involved in this, it’s all just taste and creativity.

These images are not creative commons because they don’t belong to me. They’re from one of my favorite artists, Jennifer Hewitson, from one of the Llelwyn press Witches’ calendar. I adore this art so much that I kept the calendar for years after it (2007) was no longer useful. I just couldn’t bear to throw the art away. Now I have something to use it for. I upcycled it into this postcard.

So if you are in the bookstores in January and see a bunch of calendars whose art you adore, but you already have a calendar for 2012, consider this as an alternate use for them.  I’ve also cut the months out and framed them as-is. Don’t think of them as a “calendar” but as 12 prints of art you like, on heavy cardstock that you can reuse.